Tuesday, 21 February 2017

I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER - UK BD Review

Christopher Lloyd and Max Records star in Director Billy O’Brien’s tense horror-thriller, “I Am Not a Serial Killer”, which has just been released to UK BD and DVD this month

Teenager John-Wayne Cleaver (Max Records) is something of a social misfit. Undergoing psychiatric treatment for an empathy deficit disorder and vilified by the high school bullies, he has few friends and his situation is not helped by working part-time at his family’s crematorium.

So when a serial killer starts preying on the folk in his small, mid-western town, he starts taking an unhealthy interest in his workings, after the bodies start passing through his funeral parlour. Much to everybody’s concern.

But when he witnesses one of the killings first hand, he realises this is no ordinary serial killer and no one is going to believe who, or what, it was he saw…

Adapted from the novel by Dan Wells by Director Billy O’Brien (Isolation), this was one of my favourite horror films of 2016 and have been eagerly looking forward to it’s release on disc.

The Blu-Ray contains the following special features…

-Mood cut (3:26) – A promotional short, comprised of test footage filmed in 2011-Phone Box comparison (1:11) - Side by side comparisons of the phone box scene from the test footage and final film

-*Puppet Shoot (2.28) - Behind the scenes feature showing how they animated the monster for the films finale.

-Deleted Scenes (5.25) - 5 deleted scenes from the film, that were cut for time or pacing reasons.

-Lake Storyboarding (2:47) - A collection of storyboard sketches from the scene where the killer strikes on the frozen lake.

-Toby Froud Monster Selects (1:09) - Original artwork and early designs of the film’s monster.

The DVD release contains the same features, with the exception of the *Puppet Shoot, which is exclusive to the Blu-Ray.

Exceptionally dark and chilling, I Am Not a Serial Killer makes for seriously compulsive viewing. Newcomer Max Records was brilliant as the isolated young teen, whilst Christopher Lloyd arguably steals the show, cast against type, as the creepy old next door neighbour, in a role that’s a million miles away from his usual comedy fare.